October 24, 2018

Space Council Recommends Space Force Actions (Source: Space News)
The National Space Council approved a set of recommended actions regarding the creation of a Space Force. The council, meeting Tuesday, signed off on six proposed actions ranging from the establishment of a U.S. Space Command to including the Space Force in the Pentagon's fiscal year 2020 budget request. Those recommendations were expected, but Vice President Mike Pence used the meeting to emphasize why he considered creating a separate military branch for space so important. President Trump, Pence said, is determined to make the new military branch a reality. "He asks me about the Space Force every week." (10/24)

Pegasus ICON Launch Postponed for Rocket Issue (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The launch of NASA's ICON space science mission has been postponed again. NASA announced Tuesday that the launch, which had been scheduled for Friday, would be delayed for an unspecified period to conduct additional testing of its Pegasus XL rocket. The spacecraft was scheduled to launch in June but was delayed by another issue with the rocket. ICON, or Ionospheric Connection Explorer, will study links between terrestrial and space weather. (10/24)

Canada Concerned About Space Asset Vulnerability (Source: Canadian Press)
The Canadian military is concerned that satellites it relies on are are vulnerable to attack. An internal report by the Department of National Defence prepared last year and recently released warned that satellites that provide communications, navigation and surveillance services could be targets of both cyberattacks and anti-satellite weapons. Canada is working with the U..S and other allies on ways to quickly develop replacement satellites in the event of such an attack, the memo noted. (10/24)

China to Show Off Space Station Model at Airshow (Source: GB Times)
China plans to show off a full-sized model of the core model of its future space station. The model of the Tianhe module, 16.6 meters long, will go on display at the Zhuhai Airshow in Guangdong Province next month. The real Tianhe module is being built for launch on a Long March 5B rocket in 2020 as the first of three modules that will comprise the initial configuration of the space station. (10/24)

Lockheed Martin Space Profits Increase (Source: Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed Martin reported increased space revenues and profits in its latest quarter. In an earnings report released Tuesday, the company's space division reported an operating profit of $293 million on net sales of $2.56 billion, double-digit percentage increases from the same quarter of 2017. For the year to date the space division reported an operating profit of $831 million and net sales of more than $7.3 billion, also higher than the first nine months of 2017. Government satellite programs, as well as strategic and missile defense work, largely accounted for the increase. (10/24)

Northrop Grumman Gains Profits Aftr Orbital ATK Acquisition (Source: Northrop Grumman)
Northrop Grumman also reported higher third-quarter revenue and profits, attributing the gains to its acquisition of Orbital ATK and higher sales at its aerospace systems and mission systems divisions. In an earnings report released Wednesday, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems — the division created to absorb Orbital ATK — reported an operating profit of $161 million on $1.4 billion in sales, a 16 percent increase over 2017's third-quarter  pro forma sales. Companywide, Northrop Grumman earned $1.1 billon on $8.1 billion in sales for the three months ending Sept. 30. (10/24)

Caltech Mom Wins Nobel Prize, Son is JPL Mars Flight Tech (Source: Space Daily)
"What the heck does Mom want? Oh, Mom probably doesn't understand the time difference, she's in Dallas right now and is probably still thinking it's California time...maybe she just wants me to go check on her cats..." A litany of mundane explanations ran through James Bailey's bleary mind at 3:23 a.m. on October 3 when he was awakened from a deep sleep by three phone calls from his mother's cell number. Bailey silenced his phone for the first two, getting grumpier with each ring. Call #3 did the trick. "What do you want?" With great excitement and maybe a tinge of impatience, his mother said, "I wish you had picked up your phone, but I just won the Nobel Prize."

Bailey bolted upright, thrilled by the news and fueled by adrenaline. "I was overjoyed for her. It's fairly difficult to verbalize how I feel," he said. He never did manage to go back to sleep that night. In a few hours, he'd be able to share the news with his colleagues when he arrived at his job at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Building 179, High Bay 1 - the clean room where he is a flight technician working on Mars 2020.

Bailey's mother is Frances Arnold, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering at Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA. Her 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry honors her pioneering work in creating new, improved enzymes in the laboratory using the principles of evolution. Arnold shares the prize with two other scientists. (10/24)

Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor Focuses on Workforce Pipelines for Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi (Source: GCAC)
The growing aerospace industry is facing a crisis with the aviation workforce failing to keep up with demand. Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, all seeking to increase their aerospace footprint, are all pushing efforts to improve their own training pipeline. So far, the aviation industry is getting what it needs, but they are rightfully concerned about the future. The Gulf Coast Aerospace Newsletter takes a look at the training pipeline in the four states in a special 36-page issue. Click here. (10/24)

Over the Moon About the Moon (Source: Space Review)
At the recent International Astronautical Congress, there was significant enthusiasm for lunar exploration by companies and governments alike. Jeff Foust reports that there’s still a lot of work to do to translate that enthusiasm into concrete plans. Click here. (10/22)
 
Disruptive Technology in Space Transportation (Source: Space Review)
What constitutes a truly disruptive technology in the field of spaceflight? Patrick J. G. Stiennon argues that reusable rockets alone aren’t sufficient if they simply serve existing markets, requiring instead a different approach. Click here. (10/22)
 
A Comparison of American and Japanese Space Policy Structures (Source: Space Review)
While the National Space Council in the United States has taken on a renewed role in shaping national space policy, Japan has a similar framework for developing its own space policies. Takashi Uchino compares the two countries’ structures and the differences in how policy is made. Click here. (10/22)

Thales Gains From Increased Government Demand (Source: Space News)
Increased government demand is aiding the bottom line for Thales Group's space business. The company said that "institutional" business from European governments has compensated for a drop in demand for commercial communications satellites. Thales reported 3.04 billion euros in aerospace revenue in the first nine months of 2018, roughly unchanged from the same period of 2017. (10/22)

China's Spacety Develops Secondary Payloads for Oct. 29 Launch (Source: GB Times)
A Chinese small satellite startup plans to launch four satellites next week. Spacety will fly four of its satellites as secondary payloads on the Oct. 29 launch of the China-France Oceanography Satellite. The four satellites have been developed with a range of partners for astronomy, remote sensing and technology demonstration applications. Spacety plans to launch satellites on two other Chinese missions before the end of the year. The company, which raised more than $20 million in a Series B round recently, doesn't plan to operate its own satellites but instead will build them as platforms for other customers. (10/22)

Russia's Soyuz Launch Investigation Report Due Oct. 30 (Source: TASS)
Roscosmos said it will announce plans for the next mission to the ISS after the completion of the final report into the Soyuz MS-10 launch abort next week. Roscosmos said once it receives that report, due Oct. 30, it will announce plans for launching the next crew on the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft as well as scheduling a spacewalk at the station to inspect a hole previously found in another Soyuz spacecraft docked there. Some Russian media reports have stated that the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft could launch Dec. 3. (10/22)

SpaceX Pans Five More Launches in 2018 (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
SpaceX has five more Falcon 9 launches planned for the rest of 2018. The company's current launch manifest calls for a Falcon 9 launch of the Es'hail 2 communications satellite from the Kennedy Space Center in mid-November, followed a few days later by the SSO-A smallsat rideshare mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base. In December, SpaceX will launch a Dragon cargo mission and the first GPS 3 satellite from Florida before ending the year with the final Iridium launch from California. If the company maintains that schedule, it will end the year with 22 launches, a new company record but short of earlier goals of as many as 30 launches. (10/22)

Tesla Executive Joins Relativity Space (Source: Ars Technica)
A former Tesla executive has joined a small launch vehicle startup. Relativity Space has hired Tobias Duschl, who worked for six years as senior director of global business operations at Tesla. Relativity, which is developing the Terran 1 small launch vehicle that will make extensive use of 3D printing technologies, says that Duschl's experience with large-scale car manufacturing will help the company scale up its operations. (10/22)

NASA Cubesat Images Mars (Source: GeekWire)
A NASA cubesat has taken its first image of Mars. NASA said Monday that one of the twin Mars Cube One, or MarCO, cubesats en route to Mars was able to take an image of Mars at a distance of nearly 13 million kilometers earlier this month. The MarCO cubesats, launched as secondary payloads with the InSight Mars lander, will fly by the planet and serve as communications relays during InSight's landing Nov. 26. (10/22)

China Increases Investment in Emerging Private Space Industry (Source: CNBC)
China is upping bets on private space companies, leading among countries expanding market share in the nascent industry during the third quarter, according a report from Space Angels, an investing firm specializing in private space ventures.

Chinese space companies drew $69 million of investment in the third quarter, more than any other country in that time. This year has seen China already pour $217 million in space companies, nearly matching the $230 million invested in all of last year.

Of the $16.1 billion invested in private space companies and partnerships since 2009, China now represents 3 percent, with about half a billion dollars. That may not seem like much – but nearly all of China's investment has come since 2016. (10/23)

Pence Leaves Open the Possibility of Nuclear Weapons in Space (Source: Washington Post)
Vice President Pence on Tuesday declined to rule out the idea of deploying nuclear weapons in space, saying that the current ban on their use is “in the interest of every nation” but that the issue should be decided on “the principle that peace comes through strength.”

The new positioning comes as the Trump administration moves to potentially exit a major nuclear weapons pact with Russia and possibly bolster U.S. military operations in the heavens by forming a “Space Force.” The 1967 Outer Space Treaty outlawed weapons of mass destruction in space, including nuclear weapons, and prevented the arms race between the United States and the former Soviet Union from entering space. (10/23)

Here’s The Pentagon’s Initial Plan For Creating a Space Force (Source: Defense One)
The U.S. Space Force will include uniformed service members drawn from the Air Force, Navy and Army — but it is not expected to include the National Reconnaissance Office mission, according an internal draft of the Pentagon’s plan to create a sixth branch of the military. The document will be further developed in coming months before the Pentagon sends it to Congress in February along with its 2020 budget request.

This early draft provides a glimpse into a 21st-century approach to creating a new service branch, an endeavor not undertaken since 1947. Among other things, it reveals divergent views among senior Pentagon officials about how to structure it. For example, the document says the Space Force will not “include the transfer of [the] strategic intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance mission of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). But the Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office will be integrated through …NOTE FURTHER INPUT HERE LATER REGARDING DOD/IC integration.”

Note that in a Sept. 14 memo to Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson Deputy Defense recommended including NRO in the Space Force. The draft document calls for Space Force to absorb parts of Air Force Space Command, the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, the Naval Satellite Operations Center, and the Army’s 1st Space Brigade. (10/22)

Trump’s Space Force Is a Recipe for Wasteful Spending (Source: The Regulatory Review)
President Trump has made the news with his proposed Space Force. This undertaking will be an expensive, rushed intensification of the militarization of space. Militarization aside, what particularly concerns me is that President Trump’s enthusiasm for making the initiative as splashy and dramatic as possible will undermine regulation of costs and will consequently drive the cost figures much higher than people realize—into the double digits of billions of dollars.

The whole enterprise of the Space Force is open to broad criticism based on cost concerns. Former Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James reportedly said that “it is a virtual certainty that it will be a huge undertaking that will consume a lot of time, effort, thinking.” She is reported to have stated bluntly, “I do not believe we should have a separate space force.” Even a former astronaut and an enthusiastic supporter of the Space Force admits that “there would also be significant initial costs to standing up a new Space Force.”

And President Trump’s insistence upon having “American dominance in space” does little to alleviate concerns about the cost of the project. Politico reported that “the President says he wants to dominate the cosmos. But China and Russia are not just going to stand by.” In particular, “if the U.S. missile defense proposal moves forward, it could be the beginning of a full-scale satellite war,” particularly if China should feel threatened. (10/23)

The Case Against Colonizing Space to Save Humanity (Source: Vox)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns us that climate change could be shaping up to be even more catastrophic than we feared. Too many world governments are still armed with nuclear weapons that they’ve nearly deployed by accident on occasion. We’re unprepared for pandemics, and technological advancement is bringing within reach new threats to our world. So do we need a backup plan? Or a backup planet? Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk both seem to think so.

Cosmologist Martin Rees at Cambridge University is fine with private companies exploring space, but is emphatically opposed to the idea that colonization could save us: “I think that’s a dangerous delusion because Mars will be a more hostile environment than the top of Everest or the South Pole, and dealing with climate change here on Earth is far more important than terraforming Mars.”

That was a recurring theme in my conversations with experts. Earth is in trouble, but space is deeply inhospitable to humans. And even the worst catastrophes are unlikely to leave this world as hostile to humanity as a planet with no life, no atmosphere, limited gravity, and little water. Nothing we find on Mars or the Moon is likely to be our salvation in a disaster. If we want to keep humanity alive, there are better places for Bezos, Musk, and anyone else afraid for the future of our species to spend their money. (10/23)

We Don't Deserve Elon Musk (Source: Washington Examiner)
It has been four years since lead and other toxins were found to be tainting the water supply in Flint, Mich. This month, Flint community schools thanked billionaire Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation for donating almost $500,000 to install new water fountains with filtration systems in all its schools.

Back in July, Musk promised to fund repairs to any water filtration system in any house in Flint that is contaminated above FDA levels, and he has already begun fulfilling this promise. This is yet another example of the humanity of the powerful South African entrepreneur.

But Elon Musk has not risen to super-fame through his charitable efforts. Rather, he is known for his business ventures. His company SpaceX aims to reduce the cost of space travel by re-using rocket boosters, introduce the private sphere into this coveted but expensive market, and create space tourism en masse to "broaden our horizons and make the future fun." Click here. (10/22)

Extraterrestrial Life Could Be Purple (Source: Space.com)
Alien life might be purple. That's the conclusion of a new research paper that suggests that the first life on Earth might have had a lavender hue. Microbiologist Shiladitya DasSarma and Edward Schwieterman argue that before green plants started harnessing the power of the sun for energy, tiny purple organisms figured out a way to do the same. Alien life could be thriving in the same way, DasSarma said.

"Astronomers have discovered thousands of new extrasolar planets recently and are developing the capacity to see surface biosignatures" in the light reflected from these planets, he told Live Science. There are already ways to detect green life from space, he said, but scientists might need to start looking for purple, too. (10/22)

Russian Physicists Observe Dark Matter Forming Droplets (Source: Akson Russian Science Communications Association)
Researchers developed a mathematical model describing motion of dark matter particles inside the smallest galaxy halos. They observed that over time, the dark matter may form spherical droplets of quantum condensate. Previously this was considered impossible, as fluctuations of the gravity field produced by dark matter particles were ignored. (10/22)

Neil Armstrong Movie Appears to be Flopping Because of Marco Rubio. The Truth is More Complicated. (Source: Washington Post)
Movies about space exploration have tended to be pretty strong box-office performers lately. So it’s been a surprise to see “First Man,” the Neil Armstrong drama starring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy and directed by “La La Land” filmmaker Damien Chazelle, do as poorly as it has. The film took in just $16 million last week in its first weekend of release, despite showing on nearly 4,000 screens.

Absent a major awards run, the film seems poised to become a disappointment for its studio, Universal, not to mention its star and its previously red-hot director. But exactly why “First Man” has underperformed has become a matter of debate in movie-business circles over the past week. Were its prospects sunk by Republican leaders complaining, before the film had even been released, that it didn’t sufficiently glorify American achievement? Or is the truth, like Armstrong’s story itself, a little more complicated, involving not just politics but subtle business reasons as well? Click here. (10/22)

Why are SpaceX and Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program Spacesuit Designs Different? (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) has seen two private firms develop new spacecraft to transport astronauts to low-Earth orbit. It also has seen different spacesuits designed for the astronauts who would fly on them. As opposed to the orange “pumpkin suits” of the shuttle era, these new suits are blue and white and are as distinctive as the companies that produced them. Click here. (10/23)